Power Rankings: Late-season shuffle

Most of the significant shuffling in this season's penultimate edition of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings can be found in the 4-to-15 range.

With the Cavaliers, Magic and Lakers still occupying the top three spots, this week's most notable movers are Phoenix (No. 5 to No. 4), San Antonio (No. 9 to No. 6) and Oklahoma City (No. 11 to No. 7) with the Spurs reaching their highest position since the first week of the regular season.

In the bottom half of the rankings, Indiana has unexpectedly jumped from No. 21 to No. 18 even though the Pacers have long since fallen out of playoff contention. And New Jersey has managed to rise out of the bottom two for the first time since Week 7, inching to No. 28 and dropping Detroit (thanks to a 2-18 funk) down to No. 29.

The Magic are on a quiet 15-3 roll and rank as the only team in the league to beat the other 29 teams. Even more unique: Stan Van Gundy actually sounded satisfied (pleased, even) when someone gave him that stat.

You'd think a contract extension for Kobe worth some $90 million -- the story of NBA Green Week -- would bring a little calm to Lakerland. The calm lasted about 48 hours thanks to a panic-inducing home loss to the Spurs.

The Suns just completed a stretch where eight of 11 opponents were sub-.500 teams, so it was a good time to let Robin Lopez rest his back. Check the schedule: Lopez will be missed a lot more in the final five games.

Q: Does finishing the season as strongly as anyone make up for last season's April meltdown? A: Can't answer until we see what happens in the playoffs, since anyone could win or lose a Round 1 series in this West.

They are starting to look like the Spurs again, with Manu-inspired wins over the Cavs, Celtics, Magic and Lakers in a span of just 10 days, but there's always an asterisk for this group. This time? George Hill's twisted ankle.

Imagine how much trouble the OKC kids are going to cause if they ever acquire or develop a front-line center and get some actual, you know, experience. As it is, they're going to win 50 and could still win their division.

The one decent race we had in the East was the jockeying between the Hawks and Celtics to avoid a first-round matchup against Milwaukee. We don't even get to enjoy that much now after Andrew Bogut's misfortune.

If this is Pritchard's last trade in Portland -- which I still find hard to believe -- he's signing off with a good one. The Blazers were 32-24 pre-Camby. With Camby, they're 15-6 ... and a team you want to avoid in Round 1.

No one's suggesting that a 13-game win streak is ever a bad thing. In the Mavs' case, though, winning 13 straight pitched expectations to a level they don't look ready for, judging by a 5-6 funk and serious slippage on D.

The news is only getting worse. On top of all the uncertainty surrounding the playoff availability of Karl and K-Mart, Andersen has a freshly sprained ankle and Denver doesn't have a sub-.500 team left on the schedule.

Is there such a thing as a heartbreaking victory? Sunday's near fold against the Cavs definitely makes you wonder. The Celts' consolation: Don't think they still have to Fear The Deer (or anyone else) in the first round.

On March 1? The D-Wades were ninth in the East. On April 1? They were up to sixth ... and soon headed for No. 5 thanks to Bogut's injury. An easy schedule is easy in real life only if you capitalize. And Miami has.

It all comes crashing down for the second-half darlings in one brutal week: heartbreaking loss in Cleveland, OT loss in Charlotte and then the sickening loss of Bogut for the rest of the season to a gruesome elbow injury.

The Bulls have hit a 6-2 stride since a 10-game losing streak -- translation: since getting healthy -- and should relish this week's trip to Canada now after seeing what just happened to Toronto at home against Golden State.

It's not just the 1-8 start that cost the Griz their playoff ending to this Cinderella season. They've lost after leading by 10 or more 15 times, tops in the league ahead of 13 blown leads by Boston, Golden State, Houston.

The good news: This 7-2 run with nothing to play for has to hush some of those rumbles about players bailing on Jim O'Brien. The bad news: This 7-2 run with nothing to play for ain't exactly improving Indy's lottery odds.

It's a successful season even without a playoff berth for the injury-ravaged Rockets. Quite the style transformation, too. This is how vital running is to them now: Houston is 0-16 when it scores less than 95 points.

If you had an inkling that the Raptors' playoff credentials were a bit suspect -- and Sunday's home loss to Golden State didn't confirm those suspicions -- this should do it: Toronto is 12-31 against teams .500 or better.

21

New Orleans35-43

3Last Week: 18

The Hornets have dropped 11 of 14, they've lost five of seven since Chris Paul's comeback and the playoffs are long gone. So we beg of thee, CP3: Shut it down for the rest of the season. Playing any more is a needless risk.

More evidence that the Curry-Monta backcourt will eventually be broken up? The Dubs sure don't play worse when Monta's out, improving to a decent 6-9 when Ellis sits this season with Nellie's record-tying W in Toronto.

Our Elias data isn't any more upbeat for the Knicks than it is for the Clips. Elias says N.Y. will be the league's only team with an active streak of at least five straight losing seasons as soon as Charlotte wins twice more.

The Phillies are back to work just in time to allow the beaten-down Sixers to complete this season of underachievement (and proceed with their expected coaching change) with the spotlight mercifully pointed elsewhere.

Our friends at Elias have unearthed a category that finds the Clips in the league lead. The problem? The category is games lost after leading by 20 points or more. Saturday's L in Denver was L.A.'s third such collapse.

I'm afraid that the ROY race will be closer than you think for Reke. Blame Curry's second-half numbers and his popularity/stature and Jennings' quality contributions to a playoff-bound team despite his statistical decline.

A consistently torturous season rolls on: The Wiz win for just the second time in 19 games since Feb. 28 ... on the same night that the Redskins trade for Donovan McNabb to render everything else in town a non-story.

28

New Jersey11-66

1Last Week: 29

These are the kinds of fun hypotheticals we get to throw around about the Nets now that they've passed the nine-win mark: What if Prokhorov just decides to keep raising his offer until he gets a "yes" from Coach K?

The Pistons just fell 30 games under .500 for the first time since 1993-94, but Charlie V. is still trying to keep it positive on Twitter: "These are some tough times in Detroit, but we need to continue to hang in there."

Sota is stuck down in the No. 30 basement for a second successive week -- with only one more Monday to get out -- even though its record isn't worse than New Jersey's. That's pretty much the worst of both worlds.